The Rapture (audio story)

The Rapture
Script release:	The Audio Scripts: Volume Three
Doctor:	Seventh Doctor
Companion(s):	Ace
Main enemy:	Gabriel, Jude
Main setting:	San Antonio and Es Vedrà, Ibiza, 14 to 15 May 1997
Key crew
Publisher:	Big Finish Productions
Writer:	Joseph Lidster
Director:	Jason Haigh-Ellery
Sound:	Jim Mortimore and Jane Elphinstone
Post production:	Jim Mortimore
Cover by:	Clayton Hickman
Release details
Release number:	36
Release date:	September 2002
Format:	4 Episodes on 2 CDs
Production code:	7V
ISBN:	ISBN 1-903654-74-2
Big Finish Doctor Who audio stories
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The Rapture was the thirty-sixth monthly Doctor Who audio story produced by Big Finish Productions. It featured the Seventh Doctor played by Sylvester McCoy and Ace played by Sophie Aldred. This was the fifth audio story to feature this pairing of Doctor and companion. Each episode featured remixes of the Doctor Who theme, a device employed by Big Finish on numerous occasions.

Publisher's summary

Ibiza, 1997, and thousands of young people are acting like mindless zombies.

Which is to be expected. Ibiza, the island of dance music, sex, drugs and alcohol, is the ultimate hedonistic paradise.

God has sent help from on high to save the sinners of Ibiza. He has sent His angels to save their souls.

Which would be simple enough if these souls didn't include an alien time-traveller working in a bar, a woman who disappeared in 1987, a young man carrying a photograph of a girl he's never met and an Irish girl who doesn't even know who she is anymore.

Plot

to be added

Cast

• The Doctor - Sylvester McCoy
• Ace - Sophie Aldred
• Tony Blackburn - Himself
• Jude - Matthew Brenher
• Gabriel - Neil Henry
• Gustavo - Carlos Riera
• Liam McShane - David John
• Caitriona Henderson - Anne Bird
• Brian - Daniel Wilson
• Bouncer / Clubber - Jeremy James

References

The Doctor

• The Doctor fought with Gustavo's father during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). Gustavo was a small boy at the time. The Doctor later took him to Ibiza to protect him from the horrors of the war.
• The Doctor tells Gustavo that Ace is like him in that he "attracts trouble". Gustavo suggests that it may be trouble which attracts him.
• The Doctor knows how to make Sofrit Pages and sangrias.

Individuals

• Ace's full name is given as Dorothy Gale McShane. She was born on 20 August 1970 to Audrey and Harry McShane.
• Ace's younger brother Liam McShane was born in 1974. He was suffering from depression when he started university in 1993 as his father had recently died. His best friend Caitriona Henderson helped him through it but she is now suffering from depression herself.
• Gustavo has lived on Ibiza for many years. He considered returning to mainland Spain but eventually decided against it.
• Liam describes himself as a "Christian sci-fi moppet."
• Ace promises Liam that she will come back one day and see him.

Earth history

• The Doctor refers to Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini and Francisco Franco and the rise of Fascism in Europe during the 1930s.

Television series

• After discovering that Ace is "a time travelling crusader," Liam comments that it is "not the average Kilroy family reunion."
• Liam is a fan of the science fiction series The X-Files and Professor X.

Films from the real world

• Ace tells Brian that she is from "over the rainbow." An illusory version of Tony Blackburn later tells Caitriona to kill Ace by "dropping a house on her."
• When the Doctor realises that the glowing on Es Vedrà is caused by Jude and Gabriel's inter-dimensional portal, Liam compares it to the relevant portal device from the science fiction film Stargate. The Doctor comments, "Yes but with better acting."

Notes

Comic Preview from DWM 322. Illustration by Martin Geraghty.

Textless cover art

• This audio drama features remixes of the Doctor Who theme for each episode.
• 14 and 15 May 1997 are referred to as being a Friday and a Saturday. In actuality, they were a Wednesday and a Thursday.
• Ace's date of birth is given as 20 August 1970. In real life, 20 August is the birthday of both Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred. They were born in 1943 and 1962 respectively.
• The first draft scripts had individual episode titles: Essential Selection, A Higher State of..., Deeper and Euphoric Breakdown.
• This would be the final audio drama released in the main range to feature the Seventh Doctor and Ace travelling alone until AUDIO: 1963: The Assassination Games in November 2013. The next story, The Harvest, would add Hex as a companion.
• This audio drama was recorded on 20 and 21 April and 12 May 2002 at The Moat Studios.
• Jim Mortimore's score for the story was released, alongside the scores to Dust Breeding and Bang-Bang-a-Boom! , as part of the Music from the Seventh Doctor Audio Adventures release.
• DJ Tony Blackburn's guest role marked the fourth time a celebrity played themself in a Doctor Who production, and the first time it was done in a Big Finish audio story.

Continuity

• Ace tells Brian that ten years have passed since she left Perivale in 1987. (TV: Dragonfire)
• Ace mentions the recent deaths of Feldwebel Kurtz (AUDIO: Colditz) and Madame Salvadori, who was killed by the Krill on Duchamp 331 during the 26th century. (AUDIO: Dust Breeding) She describes the former as one of the worst things that she has ever seen.
• Ace refers to Fenric (TV: The Curse of Fenric) and her recent visit to Colditz Castle in October 1944. (AUDIO: Colditz)
• Caitriona sees a "man in a golden mask" in Ace's mind. (AUDIO: Dust Breeding)
• Liam mentions the science fiction series Professor X. (PROSE: No Future, PROSE: Return of the Living Dad)
• Liam refers to the British manned missions to Mars. (TV: The Ambassadors of Death)
• Ace remembers telling the Doctor that the sea made her feel small and insignificant in Maiden's Point in 1943. (TV: The Curse of Fenric)
• The Doctor refers to the deaths of Mike Smith (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks), Captain Sorin (TV: The Curse of Fenric) and Karra. (TV: Survival)
• The Doctor is initially alarmed when Ace describes the seaweed as "killer" before realising that it was only a figure of speech. (TV: Fury from the Deep)
• Ace refers to the Doctor's previous habit of playing the spoons. (TV: Time and the Rani, The Greatest Show in the Galaxy)
• During his eighth incarnation, the Doctor would once again fight in the Spanish Civil War. (PROSE: History 101)

External links

• Official The Rapture page at bigfinish.com
• The Rapture at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
• DisContinuity for The Rapture at Tetrapyriarbus - The DisContinuity Guide